On the Fireside Fedi interview with Jerry ( the admin of Infosec.Exchange Mastodon instance ) a scary truth was suddenly revealed ( on 34:11 ): Just to keep the instance up and running he needs to spend up to $5000 a month, pretty much out of his pocket. Donations to the instance barely cover any of that. And if he will ask people to pay to use it, they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance.
No ads and no donations, they’ll put wishful thinking into the skillet and eat that I guess
Donations, subscriptions, etc are definitely fine. They are not invasive fuckery that inflict themselves on people without consent, nor do they seep into the space in a commercial manner. Ads do not respect consent and they fundamentally force commerce into every place that they touch.
Ads are the root of the rot in the www.